Sanchez, Ozil and Wilshere all have six months to run on their respective deals, while Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott – who looks set to end his 12-year association with Arsenal this month – are all out of contract at the end of next season.

And Wenger believes the recent huge hike in transfer fees increases the likelihood of players running down their contracts.

“Honestly I believe, with inflation we have at the moment, players going to the end of the contract will happen more and more,” Wenger added. “For one simple reason: the transfers are too high.

“If a player doesn’t find a massive club, he will have to go [to the end], and even if you don’t want to extend his contract, the players will want to go to the end of their contract.

“So what is the player’s calculation? Okay the club wants £50million, £60m, because they want to replace me, they have to spend £50m or £60m, it will not happen, so I wait and I take a chunk of that contract in signing-on fee.

“That’s the calculation of the agent. What do the agents do? The agents say to the club, I bring him to you at the end of the contract, but you give me a big agent’s fee.

“So that basically, slowly, it’s killing the transfers. And you will have more and more players going to the end of their contract because of that.”